Medvedev appoints Chubais chief of State Nanotechnology Corporatio

Moscow, Sep 23 (UNI) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has appointed Anatoly Chubais, former head of the country's electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems (UES), as head of the State Nanotechnology Corporation, the Kremlin press service reported.

The press service said Medvedev had signed an order dismissing Leonid Melamed, who was once Chubais's first deputy at Unified Energy Systems and giving the job to the former Deputy Prime Minister.

UES was broken up in July into a web of power generators as part of a large-scale reform to attract foreign investment to the decaying industry.

In his first statement in his new post, Chubais said Russian nanotechnology sales should reach 40 billion dollars by 2015.

He is a member of the Corporation's supervisory board and of a government commission on high technology and innovation.

Chubais, an advocate of the free market, has been critical recently of the Russian government for increasing its role in the economy.

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